Administration Says Yes to New Oil Well in Gulf

Posted on Jun 2, 2010

With atrocious timing, the Minerals Management Service has approved a new oil well to be drilled off the coast of Louisiana. As decisions go, this one seems dumber than a bag of nails. Why not just build an offshore bucket? There’s plenty of oil in the water these days. You can thank Team Obama, which let a ban on shallow drilling expire, for this bizarre development. —PZS

AP via Google:

The Minerals Management Service granted a new drilling permit sought by Bandon Oil and Gas for a site about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana and 115 feet below the ocean’s surface. It’s south of Rockefeller State Wildlife Refuge and Game Preserve, far to the west of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that triggered the BP spill.

Obama last week extended a moratorium on wells in deep water like the BP one that blew out a mile below the surface in April and is gushing millions of gallons of oil. But at the same time, the president quietly allowed a three-week-old ban on drilling in shallow water to expire.